☕ Very Mindful, Very Demure Pitches ☕

Hi everyone! Welcome to a new term, welcome to features! My name is Fiona and I’m this year’s features editor for The Ubyssey. I’m in my fifth and final year of undergrad doing a major in cognitive systems and a minor in French language and I’ve been writing for the paper since 2021. Before this year I was news and then culture senior staff. I’m really looking forward to working alongside all of you! It’s going to be a great year, I can feel it!

If you’re interested in contributing to features and attending the section’s weekly team meetings, fill out this When2Meet https://www.when2meet.com/?26282780-8lSMa by Sunday, September 8, 2024 at 11:59pm.

And if you’re interested in contributing to The Ubyssey more broadly, I highly recommend you come to our staff meetings on Friday at 4pm in the office (second floor of the Nest, room 2208) starting next week. There we cover how to become staff at the paper and make announcements so it’s the best way to stay up to date with what’s going on around the office. Hope to see you there!

One last thing — I’ll be releasing a features contributors guide next week to help new and returning writers navigate the section. Keep an eye out.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the sun, everyone!

Some things to keep in mind:

• To secure a pitch, respond to this email. I’m accepting writers on a first come first serve basis for most pieces.

• Are you a first-time writer? Please let me know in your email response.

• Once I confirm your pitch request, you can expect a follow-up email from me within 24 hours with more details on the piece.

• Consider conflict of interest implications when picking up a piece and ask me about this if you’re unsure.

• I LOVE COMMUNICATION! I will check in with you throughout the writing process but it’s also on YOU to tell ME if you’re feeling stressed about deadlines or unsure about how to proceed with anything. I gotcha <3

So have you been influenced yet?

Scooter Dom, Pea Man, that person you followed on Instagram from first year who has like 5,000+ followers on Instagram for no reason. The phenomenon of micro-influencing on campus becomes more apparent the more online we are. This long-form feature will look into what it means to be an influencer at UBC — how do you stay original and in what ways? What issues do you or should you attend to with a large following? Why influence university students?

1000-1200 words

Due Monday, October 28 by 5pm

More creative non-fiction!

This summer, I piloted The Creative Non-fiction Corner and I’m so happy with how engaged everyone has been with it so let’s keep this subsection going! I’m making a few adjustments going forward so here’s how this will work from now on: I’ll pitch out a writing theme monthly. If the theme interests you, send me an email with the following information:

1. Your full name and pronouns

2. The structure of your piece (i.e. poem OR personal essay OR short story)

3. A brief description of what your piece is about. If you're planning on doing something more fictional, I'd also like an additional brief explanation (50-100 words) about how you came up with the piece and/or what it means to you. I'll likely attach that 50-100 word description to your publication.

If I feel your pitch fits into the theme well, does not relate too closely to other already approved pitches and coincides with what we publish at the paper, the pitch is yours! I’ll accept up to 5 pieces. Afterwards I’ll have to decline submissions for logistical purposes but there’s always next month!

In light of the new term, this month’s writing theme is: beginnings! Feel free to interpret this however you please — starting over, sunrises, new life, a changed perspective — the theme is purposefully broad to give writers the liberty to get creative!

Up to 1000 words

Due Friday, September 27 by 5pm

Places to Go

Did you go somewhere cool recently? We want to hear about your adventures! Places to Go is the features travel subsection where you can document your impressions, experiences and what you’ve learned while visiting a new place. Send me an email with a proposed city and angle and we’ll go from there.

800-1000 words

Due Friday, October 4 by 5pm